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The people of Oakland showed up in force today to support the changing of the city charter to require the city to staff a commission, called the Public Safety Oversight Commission, to hold historically violent and irresponsible Oakland police accountable for their illegal and otherwise violent and inappropriate actions. This hearing was held by the Public Safety Commission, whose members are Noel Gallo, chairman of the committee and sponsor of the item, Dan Kalb, Libby Schaaf, and Lynette Gibson McElhaney.

Speakers in favor of this change spoke to everything from the lack of police service to the inappropriate and violent responses by OPD, which have gone on for decades with impunity. Often, even in the case of murder by officer Miguel Masso of young Alan Blueford, officers, instead of being investigated and charged with the crimes they’ve committed, officers are put on ‘paid administrative leave’ aka vacation. The public is kept in the dark as to any action taken against officers by OPD internal affairs or the Citizens Police Review Board, which shares all information given to them by complainants, making it a dangerous action to file complaints at all.

Alan Blueford’s mother, Jeralyn Blueford, spoke, in tears, to remind us that Miguel Masso had a history of police violence and misconduct before ever being hired by the city to be in power to murder her son. ‘We shall not tolerate this and officers will be held to a higher standard…’

One speaker mentioned the value of civilianizing public safety functions when possible, allowing sworn officers to spend their time out in the streets serving the people.

Mayoral candidate Dan Siegel spoke about the millions and millions of dollars lost to lawsuits from OPD conduct. He advised the council to confer with OPOA, the police union, regarding the issue. He said the voters have a right to decide this, but OPOA can be involved in the process. He urged, as did most other speakers, the placing of this issue on the ballot.

One woman insisted upon calling protestors ‘rioters’ … having seemingly missed the miles of video evidence that it was OPD who were rioting during the height of Occupy Oakland actions. She also urged council to place this on the ballot, and acknowledged councilmember Noel Gallo for showing great leadership in this effort.

Isaac Taggart, with PUEBLO, pushed the council to vote to put this measure on the ballot. ‘You cannot afford to vote no or abstain … we will remind you at the polls.’ He spoke about the large number of unemployed black men in the city, and drew the connection of poverty being a major cause of crime.

Oakland Police officer Frank Marrow, a 26 year public servant with a law degree, spoke about accountability needing to happen from the top of the organization. He mentioned the consent decree. He acknowledged that ‘they’re running a game’ … suggesting that attorneys are making millions of dollars off the consent decree and other attempts to reign in violent police. He said ‘I’m too radical because I believe in telling you the truth of the OPOA, and too blue for Burris.’ He wants to see ‘a police department that is constitutional.’

When councilmember Pat Kernighan stood up to speak, Gallo recognized the attendance as constituting a full council. She attempted, with earned interruptions, to suggest that what she sees as recent improvements in the efforts by OPD to comply with the consent decree makes this charter change unnecessary. She suggested, also, that the CPRB could somehow magically change the culture of the police department. She spoke in opposition to placing the measure on the ballot.

Attorney Yolanda Huang reminded us all that the foundation of appropriate prosecution of criminal action is banked in complete, true, and honest reporting by police. This is something on which we should all be able to depend, and which is not the way OPD officers do their reporting.

Akiba Bradford, a researcher in the criminal justice/juvenile justice system said, ‘The numbers don’t add up … in order for there to be a change in culture there also has to be a change in oversight.’

Sange Basha’s only question isn’t ‘why would you put this on the ballot, but why wouldn’t you?’ She spoke to the economics of spending the money to hold police accountable. She says the measure is ‘revenue neutral,’ mentioning the $70 million lost to lawsuits and settlements in the recent decade.

Jasmin Coleman is a seventeen year old youth, involved with PUEBLO. She spoke to the teachings of her elders, explaining that we are taught that we will be held accountable for our actions, but police are not. She said she is afraid of police, and that people have to protect ourselves, because police aren’t doing it.

J. Jones with PUEBLO and Oakland Youth Policy Builders mentioned hearing what he called ‘crazy stories’ about police brutality. ‘There’s no reason to wait. Put it on the ballot now, give people of Oakland a chance to decide for ourselves.’

Rashida Grinage, also from PUEBLO, spoke about the politics of the issue. ‘what you have before you in the way of a ballot measure is defined … no controversy … because it is also the work of several months of many many people in the community … from the point of view of process, we don’t have any red lines … we have agreement … we don’t have an disagreement from you … ‘ She suggested the council/committee members aren’t disagreeing possibly because they’re not considering this a real possibility. She said, ‘we’ve done the work in the community, and we are all of one mind … ‘ She went on to say, ‘we want to work with you, not against you … ‘ and delivered words of appreciation for Noel Gallo for being willing to take on what she called a ‘thorny’ issue. ‘This is time for this community to realize accountability, and we hope that you will not stand in the way of that.’

Oakland Police Chief Whendt said he agrees with Jeralyn Blueford that police should be held to a higher standard. While he claimed to be dedicated to holding officers and the department accountable, and feels that he’s making progress since coming on board as chief, he doesn’t claim to know that it’s ‘enough.’

Patrick Caceras, manager and policy analyst for the CPRP, who refused to give an opinion previous to this meeting, said that the CPRB is going through changes. While never actually stating an opinion about the proposal, he meandered around it only to compare the concept of the Public Safety Oversight Commission to the current CPRB, with, of course, increased powers. Being the person most able to acknowledge the failure of the CPRB, as it is defined, to actually do anything about police violence, he managed to state no opinion.

While acknowledging that this is an effort to actually change the city charter, Libby Schaaf asked the city attorney to explain if there was a way to create this commission without a ballot measure. In fact, as an attorney, one would think she would understand that a change such as this would require a charter amendment. This is partly the answer given by the city attorney, qualified with a statement that the office would need to do more work to completely answer the query.

Three of these committee members were elected to office in the most recent past election. Only Libby Schaaf has tenure on council.

Dan Kalb admitted to not having read the entire proposal. He said he looked into the Los Angeles version of this type of commission. He suggested that combining the current CPRB and CPAB into such a commission ‘could work.’ While stating that he is open to this concept, he never really stated support for putting this measure on the ballot. ‘I don’t know if now, when we’re under the NSA, the public should be asked.’ He clarified that he’s not against the idea, but wanting to change the language of the proposal, after community members spent months drafting this proposal, that he did not bother to read it.

‘This subject is always a tough one for me. It’s difficult when we wade into these waters’ were some of the first words out of Lynette Gibson McElhaney. She talked of growing up in gangland, made a weepy attempt to acknowledge the pain expressed by the people, then stated she wasn’t certain this was the ‘appropriate remedy.’ She also, like Kalb, acknowledged not reading the entire proposal. ‘We often think we’re gonna fix something with something, but we don’t think it all the way through’ were the words she used to suggest that this proposal is less than optimum. She claimed to have worked hard to reform the CPRB, which is notorious for having no teeth to actually stop police brutality and misconduct, and basically undermined the work of the many folks who worked so hard to develop and deliver this proposal.

Noel Gallo repeatedly mentioned ‘by the people, for the people,’ referring often to the fact that we, the people, are paying for the services of everyone from members of OUSD, to the city attorney. He thanked the people for working so hard on this effort. ‘Out of your effort and out of your push to have a better Oakland … the reality is on the neighborhood, and all the polling says … there’s lack of confidence, not only in the police department, but in my neighborhood.’ He basically went off on the CPRB for never providing the required bi-annual reports to the committee and council, and reminded us all that the proposal for a public safety commission looks very much like what the CPRB was supposed to have been doing for many years.

Gallo thanked everyone for informing him about everything from community policing to CPRB regulations and the power of the public safety committee to oversee the CPRB.

When chairman Gallo asked for a motion to approve the recommendation to send this proposal to council for consideration, Libby Schaaf immediately spoke against doing so. She suggesting putting this off ‘until the fall.’ As a reminder, this is a proposal for council to include this on the next ballot. Schaaf’s effort is to stall to make that impossible. McElhaney followed suit, wondering whether there was any ordinance which could do what this proposal is trying to do. Kalb said ‘this is not an attempt to bury the motion’ while joining forces with Schaaf and Mcelhaney to stuff the effort into the trash heap. He spoke only negatively.

Oakland Crime Reduction Project
Bratton Group Findings and Recommendations
May 8, 2013
The Bratton Group, LCC, in conjunction with the Strategic Policy Partnership, has
been working with the Oakland Police Police Department (OPD) on improving its
Compstat crime management and command accountability system and on
reorganizing its investigative functions to respond more effectively to homicides,
shootings, robberies, and burglaries. These reforms are an important component in
the larger effort to move the OPD to a Neighborhood Policing Plan, with the city
divided into five districts, each commanded by a captain. The key to this new
district-based structure is geographic accountability for each captain – and for their
subordinate lieutenants, sergeants, and officers – for a specific area of the city with
its specific crime and disorder problems, its familiar community members, and, to a
significant degree, its specific cast of criminal characters. Under the Neighborhood
Policing Plan, the district captains will be the principal crime fighters in the
Department, each taking responsibility for crime in their respective districts and
each held accountable for designing and directing responses and strategies to
counter crime conditions. So far the OPD has established two districts in East
Oakland with three more planned for the western part of the city.
The Neighborhood Policing Plan is a long-term effort to rebuild the service delivery
and crime-fighting capabilities of the OPD after years of attrition that have reduced
OPD headcount by about 25 percent. The OPD is working to add police officers, but
the current staffing shortfalls make it all the more important that the Department
deploys and manages its resources effectively now. The management and structural
reforms recommended here are part of a blueprint for focusing the OPD’s crime
fighting efforts at the local or district level. The Compstat crime management system
is being revamped into a more effective accountability tool, providing a relentless
focus on responding to and resolving local crime and police service problems. In a
key structural reform, the recommended establishment of decentralized District
Investigation Units (DIUs), will give the district captains an investigative resource to
help them in their efforts to counter and control local crime.
The Compstat Process
The Compstat Process is a paradigm-shifting approach to police management. It is an
accountablity tool, a training tool, a motivational tool, and a crime analysis tool. Its
fundamental purpose is to keep key police managers – including chiefs, district
captains, investigative supervisors, and special unit commanders – sharply focused on
the central police responsibilites of responding to and controlling crime. The heart of
the process is a series of regularly scheduled crime strategy meetings where a police
department’s top management and its field managers engage in tough, probing
sessions about current crimes and the plans and tactics to counter them. The Bratton Group Findings and Recommendations 5/8/13
2
recommedations listed below are intended to strengthen OPD’s existing Compstat
process and have been implemented in the past two months.
Findings
• The Compstat Process as previously practiced in Oakland was more of a report
or a presentation by a captain than the system of vigorous strategic oversight.
Compstat should be an intensive and probing dialogue between the
department’s top commanders and its field managers, including patrol,
investigations and special unit commanders.
• The former Compstat presentations were too general and did not deal with
crime specifics. The exchanges at Compstat should be focused on the specifics of
crime patterns and individual crimes and the measures being taken to counter
them.
• As formerly practiced, Oakland’s Compstat did not have a true primary
questioner pressing for answers to the critical questions about specific crime
problems. The department’s primary questioner should study, and be
conversant with, the current crime picture and should be ready to ask a series of
follow-up questions to ensure that every reasonable effort is being made, that
every solid lead is being followed, and that the Department’s various
components are responding swiftly to emerging crime patterns and problems.
• The captains and other field managers at Compstat were not being held
accountable for knowledge of crime in a designated district. Captains,
investigative commanders and special unit commanders should all be expected
to come to the meeting with a thorough familiarity with the crime patterns and
crime conditions in their areas of responsibility, which is achieved by reading
the incident reports about individual crimes.
• Under the existing process there was no sense of coordination, information
sharing or support from the centralized Criminal Invesigation Division (CID).
Recommendations
• Compstat meetings should be firmly under the control of the primary questioner
who drives the process forward and keeps it focused on the specific crime
problems and the plans to counter these problems.
• The primary questioner, not the reporting captain, should control and direct the
electronic maps and screens.
• Captains will be expected to be fully conversant with their crime problems,
having accurate, timely information by reading and understanding all Part I
crime reports.
• Expanded participation and input will be expected from investigative
supervisors at every level in the Department, who should be prepared to
describe in detail the response of their investigative units to current crime
incidents and patterns, to report on the status of all but the most sensitive active
investigations, and to share information about successful strategies.
• The Compstat Report should be a succinct summary of crime and enforcement
activity, showing trends in the previous two- and four-week periods, as well as Bratton Group Findings and Recommendations 5/8/13
3
year-to-date comparisons, that can be used as a departure point for Compstat
discussions.
• Working from the Compstat Report, the primary questioner should engage the
district captain and other relevant supervisors concerning any spikes or trends
in the crime numbers, paying particular attention to spikes in killings and
shootings, and questioning them on their plans to deal with these issues, i.e., the
development of effective tactics.
• All Department chiefs and captains should be present at all Compstat meetings,
except in cases when other important business calls them away. Compstat
should be seen as one most important regular activities taking place in the
Department.
• In addition to general questioning about current crime trends, the primary
questioner should pursue a series of regular lines of questioning at the Compstat
sessions:
o Hot Spots – What is being done to correct conditions at various hot-spot
locations?
o Calls for Service – Are calls for service up or down, and if up, why are they
spiking? Consider highlighting the top five locations for repeat calls in
each district. Why are police continually called there? What is the
underlying problem? Are we wasting valuable resources?
o Enforcement – What is happening with arrests and other enforcement
activity? Why are some officers in a given district very productive while
others are not? Are we making arrests in the right places and for the right
reasons? Are officers being properly directed by their supervisors
towards areas where crime is spiking?
o Warrants – What is the progress on executing Ramey warrants and other
warrants such as bail jumping, failure to appear, and parole warrants?
The number of Ramey warrants should be broken down by district, and
this information provided to each district captain and to the CID captain.
The district captains should be questioned about what is being done to
capture these suspects.
o Measures of Evidence Gathering and Processing – When Bratton Group
recommendations concerning the tracking of crime scene work are
implemented, Compstat should include a recap of crime scene runs and
lab submissions from supervisors assigned to these functions. This would
cover the number of runs responded to, the number of locations
fingerprinted, the number of ballistics and DNA submissions, etc.
o Ceasefire – How many Ceasefire individuals called to a call-in reside in a
district? How many accepted service? How many in/out of jail? How
many have been injured? How many have been victims of crime
themselves? How many are wanted for a crime?
o Persistent Quality-of-Life issues – What are the quality-of-life issues that
are most problematic for the community? What are we doing about them?
Members of the Bratton Group team worked intensively with Assistant Chief
Eric Bershears to help prepare him for his role as the primary Compstat Bratton Group Findings and Recommendations 5/8/13
4
questioner and participated in the Compstat meetings conducted on the new
model. They also assisted in revising the Compstat Report.
District Investigation Units (DIUs)
The recommended establishment of District Investigation Units will decentralize the
investigation of most robberies, burglaries, and shootings. The DIUs will report to the
district captains, giving the captains an investigative resource that can respond swiftly
to crime victims and crime scenes and pursue investigations through to arrest.
Findings
• Centralized investigations conducted by the Criminal Investigation Division
(CID) have not been successful in countering the growing robbery and burglary
problems in Oakland.
• Major Crimes Section 1 of CID, which investigates homicides, gun assaults,
suspicious deaths, and officer-involved shootings, has too large of a workload to
effectively investigate shootings, many of which are closed without further
investigation because of uncooperative victims.
• For a number of reasons, centralized robbery investigators working for Major
Crimes Section 2, are slow to respond to robberies and interview victims, losing
momentum on the investigation of pattern robberies.
• Effectively, burglaries are not investigated in the City of Oakland with only one
part-time investigator assigned to more than 10,000 burglaries last year.
• Increased camera monitoring of commerical areas throughout the city would
provide significantly more leads in robberies and burglaries and in some
shooting cases.
Recommendations
• Reduce the workload of Major Crimes Section 1 to homicides and grievous
assaults from which the victim is likely to die by assigning gun assaults for
investigation at the district level.
• Assign most robberies and non-gun assaults for investigation at the district level.
• Assign burglaries for investigation at the district level.
• Establish District Investigation Units (DIUs) in each of the five districts to
investigate robberies, burglaries, and assaults/shootings.
• Assign experienced investigative sergeants to manage the DIUs. These sergeants
would be responsible for all investigative activity in the districts and would
represent district investigations at Compstat.
• Assign three experienced investigators and three to four police officers to each
DIU, pairing experienced investigators with officers with less experience.
• Assign each investigator/police officer team to one of three specialties: robbery,
burglary, or assaults/shootings.
• Establish staggered schedules for DIU to ensure a working presence by
investigators in the afternoon and evening hours seven days a week. Bratton Group Findings and Recommendations 5/8/13
5
• Have DIU investigators respond to crime scenes, interview victims, canvass for
witnesses, gather evidence and identify crime patterns, modus operandi, and
repeat criminals active in the district.
• As the DIU system is established, use the DIUs as an investigator training ground
and career path, with officers moving in progression from police officer assigned
to a DIU, to a DIU lead investigator, to centralized CID and homicide
investigations.
• Establish strictly observed case management protocols to provide guidelines for
DIU investigations, including updated Investigative Action Reports (IARs) at five
days, 15 days, and 28 days for each active case. The Bratton Group team has
prepared a sample case management system for adaption for use in Oakland.
• Significantly increase the camera monitoring capabilities of the OPD in
commercial areas throughout the city to provide identifications and evidence in
robbery, burglary and some shooting cases. Cameras would be monitored and
recorded at the Domain Awareness Center that is currently under construction.
Evidence Management
For the DIUs to be optimally effective, OPD should implement reforms in the
management of evidence, changing some of the priorities and systems by which
evidence is gathered and analyzed.
Findings
• Crime scene technicians in Oakland work without direct supervision and
therefore with little systematic organization.
• The OPD’s digital photo file access, which could be a key tool in identifying
robbery suspects, is extremely slow and is rarely used in current robbery
investigations.
• Fingerprint evidence gathered at burglary scenes is not generally used in
burglary investigations or submitted for comparisons by the Automated
Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).
• More extensive and timely analysis of shell casings found at the scenes of
shootings and other crimes could provide stronger evidence in assault cases,
connecting guns to both specific crimes and specific gangs.
Recommendations
• Assign a supervisor, preferably a sergeant, to manage crime scene technicians
and establish a systematic dispatch protocol that both prioritizes and tracks all
crime scene runs.
• Acquire a faster running digital photo system to access Alameda County’s
Consolidated Arrest Report System (CARs) so that photo arrays can be shown
expeditiously to robbery victims.
• Establish a new protocol for the processing of fingerprints from burglary scenes
so that prints in cases with other leads and/or in cases that have been linked a
pattern of burglaries can be submitted for expeditious AFIS comparisons. Hire
additional fingerprint analysts as needed to provide this service. Bratton Group Findings and Recommendations 5/8/13
6
• Increase the analysis of shell casings found at shooting scenes to link specific
weapons to specific crimes across geographical areas and periods of time. Hire
additional ballistic analysts as necessary to provide this service.

From the man who said “Quite frankly, I’m always in favor of more cops”

From that same article : ‘Bratton again defended stop-and-frisk, which he said all police departments do to varying degrees. He said the term should be called “stop, question and frisk,” because most police stops end with a question and never result in suspects being searched.

In this interview at 2:27, Bill Bratton reveals a past clarity he has since abandoned.

There was a belief that crime was caused by things that were beyond the influence of the police, such as poverty, demographics … lotta young people … uh, the economy, uh, race issues, ethnic issues, ah the weather, ah … and we believed them.

He seems to have had, at one time, a real grasp on the actual root causes of crime. He goes on to dismiss those as causes.

Two months ago Bratton again appeared in a video interview, grabbing the spotlight to opine about gun control, and to praise and defend the stop & frisk policy, which he does after the question is posed at 4:01. First, they joke about him calling it ‘stop, question, & frisk’ … as if questioning someone for walking while black is better than frisking them for the same ‘suspicious’ behavior. He contradicts himself all in one sentence, then bumbles on.

It is a constitutionally protected activity by police. The challenge for police is to do it legally, compassionately, consistently. Not just in poor neighborhoods, not just in minority neighborhoods. And that is the issue, unfortunately, around the country because that is where it’s most frequently because unfortunately that is where the majority of crime, both serious and minor, it is committed. That’s the reality of our lives, our society. It is an essential tool of policing. Can police be better trained, supervised and monitored, I think they can. Uhh, but those that are advocating that it be done away with or representing that it can be done away with it, I’m sorry but you do away with it and, uh, you’re going to have cities overrun with crime because it is the basic tool that every police department in Amerikkka uses.

One has to wonder, if he was hired as ‘consultant’ by the city of Oakland for $250,000 for a four month stint, why he was being interviewed via videophone from New York, in the middle of his four month assignment.

Bratton goes on to say he won’t respond to something because he hasn’t yet been to Oakland. This interview was published on 22 February 2013. If he hadn’t been to Oakland by that date, how has he managed to deliver this report in less than seven weeks?

He finishes his comments by saying, “This stuff is not rocket science.”

If that is the case, why is Oakland paying $250,000 for some weeks of his time, just after many layoffs and whilst still in the midst of budget woes?

Yesterday the district attorney for Alameda county made a decision to drop all charges against me. After attending dozens of court dates since being violently abducted on 4 January 2012, and again on Mayday several months later by Oakland Police officers dressed in Storm Trooper costumes, my day in court was denied.

In a bizarre, but what appears to be routine display of abject dishonesty, she rambled to the judge for seven minutes about how this was an Occupy Oakland case, and the fact that I had been apprehended along with eleven others, most of whom had agreed to a plea deal (all highly prejudicial commentary had there been a trial ensuing). She banked her dismissal of charges in her assessment that I (at least a decade her senior) had been a good little girl all year, which begs the question : why, after having zero contact with police for a year (since her violent abduction after the raid of the Occupy Oakland encampment at Oscar Grant Plaza on 25 October 2011), did the district attorney choose to file charges against my daughter three days before the year was up?

The district attorney failed, as only a government paid liar can do, to admit to the court the true reason she was dismissing these charges. Not only did the state have no evidence against me, but they had zero evidence that a crime had even been committed in the zone where I was abducted on each of those days.

Once again, a citizen is denied her day in court.

While giving thanks to beautiful people who happen to be criminal attorneys, such as my attorney John Viola and other National Lawyers Guild folks for their dedicated service in the efforts to keep good people out of cages, many of us are now in search of civil attorneys to help file valid claims against the government for the ongoing abuses and violations of our human and civil rights. Please pass the word : civil attorney needed.

Only by filing rights violation claims against the police, the district attorney office, the city, county, state, and federal governments will we ever be able to force the officers involved in these illegal abductions to tell the truth or risk charges of perjury. Even then, the City of Oakland and other governments will likely gladly waste more tax dollars paying out settlements before forcing publicly funded police officers to tell the truth about these unconstitutional acts by police. At least we’d have our tax money back in our own hands.

On Monday, January 21, 2013, at approximately 4:30 p.m.,Chairman Fred Hampton Jr., son of slain deputy chairman Fred Hampton Sr. of the Illinois Black Panther Party, as well as three additional passengers, fell victim to the abuse and harassment many Black and Brown Oaklanders experience on a regular basis.

After leaving the Berkeley marina, the group noticed a police car following them in route to the Emeryville Target shopping store. As they pulled into the packed parking lot, they were immediately surrounded by seven police cars from Oakland and Emeryville. Officers, with guns drawn, proceeded to give the following conflicting orders to the driver: “Don’t move, put your hands up, roll the windows down, open at the door and turn off the car.”

The passengers, were aggressively told by the police to not look backward; not to look directly at them, but step out of the car with hands in the air. The passengers exited at gunpoint, one by one. Two women were placed in separate police vehicles, while Hampton and the other male passenger were told to remain standing outside in handcuffs.

A female passenger and mother of three small children was handled so roughly by officers that she had to be taken to Alta Bates Summit Medical Center (after being detained by police for over 3 hours) for treatment of a severely twisted arm recently diagnosed by emergency room physicians as a torn ACL. “There were so many police and police cars; they wouldn’t even let the shoppers leaving the store get in their cars.” Hampton stated.

Officer Kittrell M. Carter, badge #758, serial #8702, asked Hampton, “You got your I.D.? A handcuffed Hampton informed the officer that his I.D. was in his back pocket. As the policeman reached for the wallet he asked Hampton, “Are you still in Chicago at same address? The Chairman was stunned by the officer’s pre-existing knowledge of his identity and residence before the actual identification was viewed.

When asked what was going on, the group was told by an officer that they were responding to a report of a stolen cell phone, though none of the detainee’s several ringing cell phones were confiscated by police on the scene. It’s like going to the scene of a child endangerment and NOT checking on the child.

After being held in handcuffs in the Target parking lot for over three hours, a separate police car arrived and each detainee, except Hampton, was ordered in front of the vehicle’s floodlight. Sergeant J. Thompson, badge #8238 then told officers to uncuff the four people and the police began to leave. When Hampton and others demanded an explanation for the fiasco as well as the names of officers and complaint forms, he was told that a robbery had occurred and a cell phone that was stolen was tracked to the Target parking lot. An unknown victim who supposedly arrived in the latest police vehicle said that none of the detainee’s were involved in alleged incident.

All of this follows a recent appearance by Hampton at the City of Oakland public safety committee meeting last Tuesday, January 15th where Hampton spoke in opposition to the hiring of “supercop” William Bratton, who is known for his authorization of unconstitutional policing, the kind of which the Hampton family is painfully all too familiar.

Hampton’s impassioned speech was punctuated by applause when at the end of his 2 minute open forum comment, he claimed to have received ceded time from Oscar Grant and Alan Blueford who Hampton stated, “are not able to be here to speak for themselves”. This fraudulent and random stop by local law enforcement is also only one day before the full city council meeting when Bratton’s contract is slated to be voted on by city officials.

This harassment of Fred Hampton Jr. is, in essence, an attack on the work being done to stop the Bratton contract. The name recognition of Fred Hampton brings significant attention to the issue of unlawful, demeaning policing on communities of color.

It is imperative that we reach out to neighbors, co-workers, comrades, and everyone who will listen to remind them that an injustice to one is an injustice to all; we must work to ensure all rights are protected.

If you can, attend the City Council Meeting today, January 22nd at 6:00 pm. Come very early to get a seat, fill out speaker cards, and let Council know that intimidation tactics and apartheid-like policing will not be tolerated in Oakland!

Grief takes many forms. When young Alan Blueford was murdered by Miguel Masso in May 2012, his family, stunned by their loss, tried valiantly to follow protocol, politely asking for answers from what they would learn the hard way is one of, if not the most corrupt and violent police organizations in the country. Initial rallies, marches, and protests in reaction to this killing were tamed by pleas from the family to respect the prescribed process. Unfortunately the family learned the hard way, but in record time, about the corruption at city hall and especially within the Oakland Police organization. By now their grief is manifest in fury, and they have joined the ranks of many who have known for decades that we are governed by a process which, by definition, allows for and even actively supports the dissemination of lies and misinformation to protect police from being held accountable for their actions. While we struggle for justice, push and yell for answers, Miguel Masso is on paid vacation for having murdered Alan Blueford. They’re calling it ‘medical leave,’ as he shot himself in the foot during the shooting of young Alan.

Blueford family members are suspicious that Officer Masso shot Alan in anger over having accidentally shot himself. Others are suspicious that Masso, in fact, shot himself after shooting Alan Blueford, in order to create a scenario that would excuse the murder he had just committed.

Last night at city hall, the house was packed with people come together once again to demand the truth, and demand the city hold OPD responsible for not only the heinous crime of murder, but the additional infuriating crime of lying to the public, and lying directly to Alan’s family. In the first hours after young Alan, a high school student about to graduate, was shot by Masso, the machine went into overdrive, directly informing the corporate press that Alan had shot Masso. They also claimed Alan Blueford had been brought to Highland Hospital for treatment of gunshot injuries. Never since that terrible day has the city made a public apology for having lied about that and all other details of this shooting. Evidence shows that Alan never fired a shot. Witnesses also claim he never was in possession of a weapon. The autopsy revealed that Alan Blueford had to have been lying on the ground when he was shot by Masso.

During heartfelt pleas with city officials, Jeralynn Blueford called out the city and OPD for reporting the lie that Alan had been brought to Highland Hospital for treatment immediately after the shooting. He had, they said, never been brought to Highland at all. Records at Highland Hospital show that Alan was never brought there.

At some point in the proceedings, council president and all around arrogant tool Larry Reid stood up out of his chair, walked two seats over, and began engaging in conversation with the reviled city administrator Deanna Santana WHILE A MEMBER OF ALAN’S FAMILY WAS SPEAKING. When an attendee at the meeting called both of them out on this unbelievably disrespectful and inappropriate behavior, Reid offered to have the attendee removed from the building. Of course that was a laughable threat, as the nearly two hundred other attendees wouldn’t have allowed for such implementation of police state activity, and the protestor took the moment to inform mister Reid of the likelihood of a rumble should he choose to attempt to follow through on that threat.

Eventually, Reid called for a ten minute recess to give themselves time to request the presence of the chief of police. That ten minutes became twenty, then thirty, during which time the angry crowd loudly chanted for justice for Alan Blueford, for killer cops to be jailed, and for OPD to be held accountable. Councilmembers gave the impression they were awaiting the arrival of Coward Jordan.

When councilmembers took their seats, Ignacio de la Fuente claimed that Larry Reid was ‘outside speaking with the family.’ This blatant lie was instantly and loudly called out by many in attendance, as the family was sitting in the same seats they had occupied throughout the meeting. One person called out, ‘don’t you recognize them?’

The next order of business was so out of place in the context of the problem at hand, that the crowded room erupted in outrage the moment it was announced. Item 4.2, titled ‘International City Of Peace Declaration‘ was a slap in the face to a community of people who have been literally under the gun of a police state for decades. More recently, the truth of that description of Oakland as a police state has been documented with the illegal actions taken by OPD and the Department of Homeland Security against protestors involved with Occupy Oakland.

At about 7:30pm, Larry Reid declared ‘all right, this meeting is now adjourned for two weeks.’ The response was overwhelming disgust and anger from the crowd, vowing to return with yet another chant : ‘we’ll be back.’ As Reid departed the dais and headed for the private chambers.

Where was Coward Jordan last night? After demands were made for him to appear and explain why the family of murdered teen Alan Blueford has yet to receive even the police report from the night he was shot and killed by Oakland Police Officer Miguel Masso, Jordan never appeared. When Larry Reid ran off to hide in council’s private chambers, Jordan was spotted hiding in that back room. Since nobody saw him enter, it seems he had been there quite awhile, yet never coming to face the crowd of legitimately angry people. Hence the name Coward.

Jordan earned this name long ago, when he abruptly ended a meeting at First Acts Church in which he was supposed to be informing the Blueford family the truth about the senseless police shooting of their son. At that town hall meeting, Jordan continued manipulating the delivery of information, each new rendition of the story hanging on to the invented concept that Alan Blueford somehow deserved to be murdered by police. After having shown enormous disrespect to the community that day, the people in attendance held an impromptu rally on church grounds as Jordan and his body guards, including Chris Bolton, left the premises. OPD then arrested a protestor after he left church property, for supposedly having assaulted a police officer by yelling through a megaphone. As is their normal procedure, they held this young man for the maximum number of hours possible in the notoriously abusive Santa Rita jail, then released him without charges. He had committed no crime.

This is a story about community. The loss of another young, black son is driving the community together. The people of Oakland seem to finally be ready to forego prescribed diplomacy in favor of getting results. Last night’s meeting was an exercise in getting results. If the disruption of routine city business last night is any indicator, and the city will not deliver justice for Alan Blueford, the people of Oakland will be taking justice for Alan.

Alan DeWayne Blueford, born December 20,was an 18 year old Senior at Skyline High School, preparing to graduate in June. He was the youngest son of Adam Blueford, Sr. and Jeralynn Brown Blueford.

During the early morning hours of May 6, 2012 Alan was murdered by an officer [Miguel Masso] with Oakland Police Department. His family is now seeking justice for his death.

Here is what we know:

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At or about midnight, May 6, 2012, Alan and 2 friends were standing on the corner of 90 th and Birch Street waiting for “some girls in a white chevy,” Alan described to his father, Alan Blueford, during a phone call. After the phone call, police officers approached Alan and his friends with guns drawn. The police officers had been called to respond to another incident, but decided to stop Alan and his friends when they saw them because they “believed the young men had a concealed weapon.”

Alan ran down Birch Street, away from the police officers.

Approximately two blocks down Birch Street on the 9200 Block the officer chasing Alan murdered him by shooting him 3 times. The officer also shot himself.

Although, Alan had his brown wallet with his ID, Oakland Police Department never called to tell his parents he was shot and killed.

Alan’s two friends were detained for over 6 hours. After their release, one of the young men had the traumatic task of calling Alan’s parents and telling them Alan was shot and killed by an Oakland Police Officer.

Initial reports put out by OPD, stated that “a suspect” (Alan) and a police officer exchanged gun fire and the officer was shot in the stomach by the suspect and the suspect was shot by the officer. Both were said to have been rushed to Highland Hospital where Alan died and the police officer was expected to recover. OPD also included in their reports witness statements who said they saw Alan shooting. OPD reported that they retrieved Alan’s firearm at the scene.

Later OPD changed their story to state that the officer was shot in the leg and an investigation was in process to determine whether the officer was wounded by “friendly fire.”

Only one of the officers chased Alan.

What we now know is that Alan Blueford never shot the police officer, at the police officer, or anyone else. OPD changed their story yet again, admitting and confirming that THE OFFICER SHOT HIMSELF.

We also know that Alan was never rushed to Highland Hospital. Only the police officer. Alan’s body lay in the streets for approximately 4 hours.

Alan was shot multiple times by the police officer.

The family has reason to believe that Alan never had a firearm.
The family has reason to believe that Alan never caused the officer to be threatened. Alan’s body can be described as a shorter stature (approximately 5 ft 6 ½ inches) and thin built (140 lbs).

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When Alan’s family learned of the claimed circumstances surrounding Alan’s death, we all knew that the facts were not true! Additionally, because they never called to confirm his death, we were sadly left with hope that the unnamed “suspect” was not Alan. He was joy to many people. We are suffering from a great loss.

Now OPD claims that the “victim” (no longer suspect) was a convicted felon on probation. His family will simply respond by saying felony probation does not describe Alan’s character. To describe Alan, you have to share that he 1] was a Christian; 2] worked with the disabled children at Skyline, one of whom described “Al” as his “bestfriend”; 3] began his mornings at Skyline High School by praying with his Godmother and Supervisor; 4] passed out candy at his
grandmother’s every Halloween; and 5] was well known by his family and friends as a respectful young man. But even more important is the fact that when the police officers decided not to respond to the call, but rather to bother Alan and his friends, all they knew is that they were 3 African-American young men. That’s why Alan was murdered.

Alan’s family is seeking justice for his death. We are determined to have this “incident” thoroughly investigated and all wrongful parties prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We ask that all of you support us by calling the City Councilman for District 7, Larry Reid, at 510-238-7007.

As we embark upon this long journey, we rely on the Grace and Mercy of our Father God, through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. We find peace in scripture, specifically Genesis 50:20 (NIV) “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant if for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”